Bigotry News: You Get What You Pray For

[MineralMan]

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/03/reverend-robert-jeffress-donald-trump-homophobia

Dallas, Texas Pastor Robert Jeffress preaches white supremacy, misogyny, and homophobia. No wonder Donald Trump loves him.

The press often describes the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of Dallas’s First Baptist Church, as President Donald Trump’s “spiritual adviser,” and a brief glance at the reverend’s resume helps explain why the two get along so well.

Now a frequent Fox News guest, Jeffress rose to national prominence in 1998, when he was pastor of the much smaller First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls, Texas. There, he led a campaign to remove two gay-friendly children’s books, Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate, from a local library, eventually pressuring city council to move them to the adult section — an order a court later ruled violated the constitution.

Jeffress’s crusade against children’s lit increased the membership at his Wichita Falls church and helped him secure his ministerial appointment in Dallas. From this more influential pulpit, Jeffress has predicted that LGBTQ rights activists “will pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist, to persecute and martyr Christians without any repercussions whatsoever.” He characterized the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which declared laws banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional, as “the greatest, most historic landmark blunder in the history of the United States Supreme Court.”

But Jeffress is also an equal-opportunity bigot. He has labeled the Catholic Church a satanic cult that will serve as an instrument of the Antichrist in the end times. He insisted in a 2010 interview that “you can’t be saved being a Jew.” The same year, he called Mormonism “a heresy from the pit of hell” and linked Muslims with child molestation. “The deep, dark, dirty secret of Islam: It is a religion that promotes pedophilia — sex with children,” he sermonized. “This so-called prophet Muhammad raped a nine-year-old girl — had sex with her.”

Trump has the best advisors. Tremendous advisors. Believe me.

[bobbieinok]

1. Criswell pastor of Jeffries' church in 50s a major embarrassment to SBC TX college students

Every week he came out with something cringeworthy for those of us who were trying to show our fellow students we could be SoBaptists and intelligent. They were always dubious, and Criswell's proclamations constantly undermined our attempts.

We said he wanted to be to the SBC what he thought the Pope was to the Catholic church - the one making all the rules and able to decide who was saved.

[bobbieinok]

2. Thanks for this post. The history of SoBaptists in Dallas is very enlightening

[thucythucy]

3. To think this man is anywhere near political power

and "advises" the president is frightening. Nauseating, in fact.

It saddens me to see this sort of unabashed bigotry, and I get scared for all my friends who "stand out" as obvious targets.

[guillaumeb]

4. 22 out of 80 on the first page.

Edited to add: 27 out of 80 on the second page.

[MineralMan]

5. Prolific, aren't I?

Thanks for noticing.

[guillaumeb]

6. Prolific indeed.